Senator Joel Villanueva has filed a bill that aims to provide for additional allowances for faculty members of state universities and colleges (SUC), as he sought to improve the living conditions of teachers in higher education institutions.
The bill providing additional benefits for teaching personnel in SUCs and state-run technical and vocational institutions is one of 10 priority measures that Villanueva is pushing in the coming 18th Congress.
“The bill gives faculty members better compensation with additional grocery and medical allowances every quarter.”
Villanueva said he hopes that the measure, once passed into law, gives faculty members better compensation with additional grocery and medical allowances every quarter.
“We seek to uplift the standing of our faculty in public higher education institutions with this bill. We hope that maintaining a competitive salary package in public universities and colleges helps our SUCs retain the best faculty among their ranks,” the seasoned legislator said. “After all, they bear the heavy responsibility of shaping our youth into the professionals of tomorrow.”
In the same vein as the additional allowance for SUC faculty, he likewise pushed for a similar measure that augments the pay of school teachers in basic education.
The veteran lawmaker also filed a measure that institutionalizes the skills certificate equivalency program (SCEP) of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). Under the SCEP, an individual holding a TESDA-issued national certificate (NC) may seek the appropriate civil service eligibility from the CSC.
“A TESDA-issued national certificate is a proof of one’s expertise on a certain skill or a set of skills.”
“An NC is a proof of one’s expertise on a certain skill or a set of skills. It is an assurance of the competencies of a skilled worker. Thus, this bill is consistent with the Constitutional policy that appointments in the civil service are made only according to merit and fitness,” the senator said.
“The passage of this bill will ensure the security of tenure of qualified skilled workers in government, provide equal opportunities to middle skill workers to enter civil service, and certainly improve the image of tech-voc education in the country,” he concluded.